Shorts and method of making



Feb. 17, 1970 v 'r. B. TERRY 3,495,275

' SHORTS AND METHOD OF MAKING 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 23, 1967 INVENTOR TRENT B. TERRY BY j ATTORNEY 3 T. B. 'r-ER-RYI 3,495,275

SHORTS AND METHOD OF. MAKING Feb. 17, 1970 4 .4 Sheets-Sheet 2 v Filed 001;. 23, 1.967

INVENTOR TRENT B. TERRY nyiwez ATTORNEYS Feb. 17, 1970 'r. B. TERRY 3,

SHORTS AND METHOD OF MAKING Filed Oct. 25, 1967 v 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 ZIR INVENTOR TRENT B. TERRY FIGS 11 BY 3 Q Day/8y ATTORNEYS r. B. TERRY SHORTS AND METHOD or" MAKING Feb. 17, 1970 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed 001:. 23, 1967 Y m m @m W W m VNGR United States Patent 3,495,275 SHORTS AND METHOD OF MAKING Trent B. Terry, Charlottesville, Va., assignor to Pennington Garment Company, Pennington Gap, Va., a corporation of Virginia Filed Oct. 23, 1967, Ser. No. 677,102 Int. Cl. A41b 9/02 U.S. Cl. 2-224 10 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A shorts garment including two front panels connected to each other to form the fly and crotch and connected to a back panel to form side seams and an inseam. The side edges of the two front panels and the side edges of the back panel form an angle of approximately 8 to 12 with the fly edges of the front panels and the bias of the garment is equal on each side of each side seam. A method of making a shorts type garment including arranging the panels for twenty-four garments on a length of material in such a manner that a substantial saving in material is realized.

BACKGROUND Field of the invention This invention relates to garments, and in particular it relates to shorts especially for men and boys but also adaptable for use by women; it also relates to analagous items such as pajamas. The invention also includes a method of manufacturing the garment.

Description of the prior art A suitable design for a garment such as a pair of shorts must satisfy a number of rigid requirements. The garment not only must conform to established size standards, but also, it should be economical to produce, that is, it should permit savings in labor and material costs. However, when concerned with clothing it is also necessary to satisfy the more aesthetic considerations such as comfort, attractiveness, quality, etc.

In my previous Patent No. 3,134,108, issued May 26, 1964, there was disclosed and claimed an arrangement which provided an improved comfortable and attractive pair of shorts while also permitting a reduction of labor and material production costs.

However, notwithstanding the benefits obtained from my previous patent, there still exists a need for further improvement in the design and manufacture of shorts for further enhancing the comfort, appearance, etc., and for providing still further savings in production costs. The present invention is concerned with such improvements of my previous patent.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Thus, the purpose of this invention is to provide a new and improved arrangement concerning a garment, especially of the type commonly referred to as shorts. To simplify the description of the invention the terms back, front, upper, lower, horizontal, vertical, right, and left, etc., are used below with reference to the orientation of the garment when in use on a person. Obviously, the garment or the parts thereof can assume any other orientation when not in use or during the manufacture of the garment.

Although the garment of this invention, like that of my previous patent, includes three basic pieces, a back panel and two front panels, the shapes of these panels have been changed and from these changes it has been possible to derive new, vastly improved and unobvious results.

According to the present invention, both the upper and ice lower edges of the back panel extend generally downwardly from the sides to the center. These edges are generally parallel to each other, except that the center of the lower edge includes an upwardly concave inseam portion. The two side edges of the back panel converge upwardly towards each other, each forming an angle of approximately 8 to 12, but preferably 9 to 10, with a vertical line bisecting the back panel.

The two front panels are generally trapezoidal, each one including horizontal upper and lower edges, a vertical fly edge and a side edge forming the same said angle of approximately 8 to 12, but preferably 9 to 10 with the fly edge of the same panel.

With the three panels constructed in the manner described above, a number of new and unobvious results have been obtained. Comfort and appearance are greatly improved since it is now possible to place the side seams which connect the front panels to the back panel exactly at the sides of the garment. Also, with this particular construction it has been found that the bias of the garment on each side of each side seam is precisely balanced with that on the left side thereof. Balanced bias provides a considerable improvement in comfort in that disadvantages such as creeping or riding of the garment resulting from improper or imbalanced bias are eliminated.

Still another advantage of the above-noted construction is that it makes possible a new, economical and substantially improved method for producing the garment.

According to the new and unobvious method, the panels may be arranged along a length of material in such a manner as to substantially reduce labor production costs by simplifying the cutting operation. Moreover, a specific arrangement of the panels has been found which will substantially reduce material costs by effecting a major saving in material.

Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide a new and improved method and article relating to a garment of the type commonly referred to as shorts.

It is another object of this invention to provide a garment such as a pair of shorts which is pleasing in appearance, comfortable to wear and more economical to produce.

It is still another object of this invention to provide a method of producing an improved article which method permits both labor and material costs of manufacture to be reduced.

Other objects and the attendant advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description to follow together with the accompanying drawmgs.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS There follows a detailed description of preferred embodiments of the present invention together with accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that these drawings are provided merely for the purpose of illustrating preferred embodiments of the invention and that the invention is capable of numerous modifications and variations apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention.

In the following drawings, forming a part of this specification, like numerals are employed to designate like parts throughout. Also, where parts are symmetrical, right to left, the subscripts R and L are used.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a front view of a preferred embodiment of the invention showing a completed pair of mens and boys shorts.

FIGURE 2 is a rear view of the shorts illustrated in FIGURE 1.

3 FIGURE 3 is a side View of the shorts illustrated in FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 4 is a plan view of the blanks required to make the shorts of FIGURES 1- 3.

FIGURE 5 is a detailed sectional view of the waist taken along line 5-5 of FIGURE *1.

FIGURE 6 is a detailed view showing the initial formation of the inner fly end on the reverse of the material.

FIGURE 7 is a detailed view showing the initial formation of the outer fly end on the reverse of the material.

FIGURE 8 is a partial front view showing the overlay of the inner and outer fly and crotch in preparation to sewing.

FIGURE 9 is a front view indicating the sewing for forming the fly ends and forming the crotch.

FIGURE 10 is a detailed view of the inseam after sew- FIGURE 11 is a detailed sectional view of the fly taken along line 11- 11 of FIGURE 9.

FIGURE 12 is a pattern showing a length of material having an arrangement thereon for forming twentyfour pairs of shorts according to the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A preferred embodiment of the invention, as shown in the drawings, may comprise mens or boys shorts of the boxer-type. Such shorts is normally constructed of woven or unribbed kni-ted material and comprises, as shown in FIGURES 14, a waist portion 2%), a front portion 21 comprising a righthand portion 21R and a lefthand portion 21L, a seat, or back portion 22 and leg portion 23R and 23L. An attractive design is created by using cloth with design lines on the straight of the material and for purposes of this description such a design is employed to more dramrnatically illustrate the features of the invention. Therefore, in the illustrated embodiment the lines are parallel to the longitudinal direction of the length of material from which the individual panels are taken.

it should also be noted that the bias of the woven cloth or unribbed knit will be at 45 to the design line in either direction, that is, at 45 to the direction of the yarns. Therefore, the lines will assist in illustrating the effect of bias on the garment of the present invention.

The portions of FIGURES 1 and 2 to the left and right of the break lines respectively illustrate the normal condition of the shorts with the elastic waistband relaxe The other portions of the shorts of FIGURES 1 and 2 on the other side of the break lines illustrate the shorts with the elastic waistband stretched to the limit permitted by the material.

FIGURE '3 illustrates the shorts viewed from the lefthand side. It should be noted that the back panel 22 joins the left front panel 21L at a seam 261. which extends along the portion of the garment which is farthest to the left when the shorts are being worn. The design lines in FIG- URE 3 also illustrate that with the present invention the lines are symmetrical about the seam 26L. Consequently, the bias of the material on one side of the seam 26L is balanced with that on the other side. Of course, the same is true of the material on each side of the other side seam 26R.

FIGURE 4 illustrates the three basic panel blanks necessary to construct the shorts according to the present invention. The design lines shown in FIGURE 4 are parallel to the longitudinal axis or" the length of material from which the panels were cut. For convenience this axis will be referred to hereinafter as the material axis. There is provided a back panel 22, a right front panel 21R and a left front panel 21L. The panel 22 includes a generally concave upper edge 30 and a generally convex lower edge 31, the latter including an upwardly concave central portion32 taking up approximately /3 of the lower portion. The upper edge 30 will constitute a. part of the waist 20, the lower portion 32 will constitute the inseam and the remaining portions of the edge 31 will form part of legs 23R and 23L.

The panel 22 also includes two side edges 33. It is an important feature of the present invention that the side edges 33 converge towards each other to form an angle 6 of approximately 8 to 12, but preferably 9 to 10 with the material axis.

The two side panels 21R and 21L are identical to each other except that each is reversed, right to left, with respect to the other. These panels are shown in FIGURE 4 adjacent the edges of panel 22 to which they will be attached. Each side panel includes a straight upper edge 35 and a straight lower edge 36 parallel to edge 35. Each panel further includes an outer, or fly, edge 38 perpendicular to edges 35 and 36 and parallel to the material axis, and an inner, or side edge 37 which forms the same angle 0 with the material axis. It will be noted that when the panels 21R and 21L are attached to panel 22, the lines 35 and 36 will form linear extensions of the outermost ends of lines 3t? and 31, respectively.

To form a pair of shorts with the blanks of FIGURE 4, the seams 26R and 26L are first formed by attaching each of the edges 37R and 37L to their adjacent edges 33 of panel 22 (as shown in FIGURE 4) by suitable stitching. Edges 35R, L and 36R, L now form linear extensions tangent to the outer ends of upper curved edge 30, and lower curved edge 31, respectively.

With the three pieces so joined the two panels 21R and 21L are turned towards each other in the direction of arrow 34 (see FIGURE 4) so that edges 38R and 38L come together in the front of the garment to form the fly.

Approximately one-third of the distance up the edges 38 perpendicular slits 27 are made, these slits separating fly edge portions 28 from the inseam edge portions 29. The result should be such that the sum of the lengths of the two inseam edge portions 29R and 29L is slightly larger than the length of portion 32 of the bottom edge of the back panel 22.

After the blank has been attached to form one large blank, and after the slits have been made, it is convenient to attach the elastic waistband 52 (see FIGURE 5) by stitching it to the upper portion of the blank along edges 35L, 30 and 35R in a known manner with four lines of stitching as shown at 53 in FIGURE 5. The band 52 is, of course, stretched to a certain extent while applying, so that on completion the material at the waist portion 20 will gather, due to the contraction of the band 52. For reasons hereinafter discussed, the waistband 52 is started at about a distance in from the edge 38L which is equal to the depth of the slits 27 in edge 28L. The stopping point of the band 52 near the edges 38R on panel 21R should be equal to about the depth of the slit 27 on the edge 38R.

Thus, it should be observed that attaching the band 52 requires only a single unhampered operation. Furthermore, the sewing threads required for the band will not need to be trimmed and reinforced at the respective waistband ends. This will be apparent from the discussion of the fly construction below.

FIGURES 6 and 7 illustrate the construction of the fly at edges 38R and 38L. FIGURE 6 shows a detail of the inner fly construction 39 on panel 21R. This is pre pared by folding over edge 38R at a point about the depth of the slit 27R. This is also about at the end of the waistband 52. The extreme edge 38R is then slightly hemmed, and the resulting fold is sewn with a single line stitching 43 the entire length of the edge.

FIGURE 7 illustrates the outer fly end portion 41. The edge 38L is folded the entire depth of the slit 27L. This again will also result in a fold at about the end of the band 52. The end is appropriately hemmed and tucked at the lower end such that the stitching 44 of the entire length may result in a curved line as shown.

After the formation of the fly, crotch edges 40L and 40R now become apparent leading to inseam edges 42R and 42L. FIGURES 8 through now illustrate the further construction of the material to form the garment. When the fly end portions 39 and 41 have been completed, the front panels 21R and 21L are then brought together in a manner as shown in FIGURE 8. The inner end points of the slits 27 are placed in contiguous relation to each other with a corresponding overlap of the outer fly end 41 and the inner fly end 39. FIGURE 9 illustrates the method of stitching upon completion of the overlap operation. At the top, a single needle stitch 45 is performed with a resultant rectangular pattern.

The crotch and bottom fly portions are then joined as follows. The crotch edge portions 40 and 42 are appropriately hemmed as for a usual narrow width, double needle operation. The lower edge of the inner fly end portion 39 is tucked in between the inner fly end 39 and the outer fly end 41, and the tucking is a corresponding amount to the previous tucking of the Outer fly end 41. Then by means of a single needle operation, the parts are stitched together by starting at the crotch end, sewing the crotch end a short distance along the fly, turning and sewing across the fly and then sewing back down to the crotch end. The result 46, as shown in FIG- URE 9, is an apparent double stitch of the crotch and a triangular stitch pattern of the lower fly end.

The next step in the manufacture of the garment may be the formation of the legs by sewing of the inseam 47.

8 and 12 and still provide blanks which have the advantages of the present invention. In the arrangement of FIGURE 12 there are twenty-four garments including a normal size distribution of one size 28, three size 30, five size 32, six size 34, four size 36, two size 38, one size 40, one size 42, one size 44 on a length of material 45 wide and 17 yards long. The numbers on the garments correspond to the garment size for which each of the blanks are intended and the letters L, R and B correspond to left and right front panels and the back panels, respectively. For each back panel there is, of course, a left and right front panel indicated by the same size.

The saving in material is immediately apparent by a visual observation of FIGURE 12. Moreover, labor time for cutting is reduced since, at many locations, adjacent elements may be formed by a single cut. Also, since the identical angle 0 is used on the sides of the back panel and on the fly sides of the front panels it is possible to place many of the side panels in abutting relationship with back panels, even where the said abutting back panels are for a different size garment.

The sizes of the panels are large enough to permit their fabrication into the garments of the sizes indicated in Table I to meet the standards established by the National Bureau of Standards of the Department of Commerce (50137-46) for mens panelback shorts, and as shown below:

TABLE I Size (inches) Location 28 32 34 36 38 42 44 46 48 Total length 16 16% 16% 17 17 17% 17% 18 18 18% 18 19 Thi h 13% 14% 14% 15% 15% 16% 16% 17% 17% 18% 18% 19% Width of waist:

(a) Elastic all around 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 (b) Elastic at sides 1 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 (c) Elastic at back 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 (d) Strap at back 14% 15% 16% 17% 18% 19% 20% 21% 22% 23% 24% 25% (e) Strap at sides 14% 15% 16% 17% 18% 19 4 20% 21% 22% 23% 24% 25% (f) Tie strings at sides 14% 15% 16% 17% 18% 19% 20% 21% 22% 23% 24% 25% Leg Width 11% 12 12% 13 13% 14 14% 15 15% 16 16% 17 Front rise. 12% 12% 12% 13% 13% 13% 13% 14% 14% 14% 14% 15% Back rise 18 18% 18% 19 19 20 20 21 21 22 22 22 Width across inseam- 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 Front opening 4 9% 9% 9% 10% 10% 10% 10% 11% 11% 11% 11 12% Width across seat 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 23 29 3O 31 32 1 The total amount of elastic showing in finished garment at rest shall be not less than 6 inches for each size 2 Straps shall be so buttoned that all buttonholes on straps are filled with buttons.

3 Ties shall be entirely loosened.

4 Given as a guide only, not as a standard.

This is accomplished by stitching the front blank inseam edges 42L and 42R, now in contiguous relation, to the bottom edge 32 of the back panel 22. This is done in one continuous double needle operation as shown in FIGURE 10.

The garment may then be completed by hemming the leg openings with stitching 48 to form the finished leg portions 23R and 23L.

FIGURE 11 illustrates the structure of the fly elements in a sectional view taken along line 1111 of FIGURE 9.

It has been shown that the selected angle 0 permits the advantages of balanced bias at the side seam and it permits the placement of the side seam at the outermost sides of the garment. This provides a slim, sleek, neat appearance.

This angle 0 also provides another very important advantage in that it has led to the discovery of a method for manufacturing the shorts including arranging the panels on a length of cloth, in a new unique pattern which pattern results in a very considerable reduction in the amount of material required to produce a given number of garments of a given size distribution.

FIGURE 12 illustrates a bolt of material having a pattern employing the angle 0. The mean preferred value of the angle 0 is 9 to 10. In one example, the exact measurement of the angle is 9.5 However, since the edges of the individual panels on the length of material includes some extra material for hems and seams, it is possible to vary the angle slightly, for example, between Although the invention has been shown and described in considerable detail with respect to a preferred embodiment thereof, it should be understood that the invention is capable of numerous modifications and variations apparent'to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

I claim:

1. A pair of shorts comprising a back panel having a generally concave upper edge and a generally convex lower edge and a pair of side edges and two symmetrical right and left front panels, each front panel having parallel upper and lower edges, a fly edge substantially perpendicular to the said upper and lower edges, the said fly edges being connected together at the front of the garment, and each front panel also having a side edge, the side edges of said front panels and said back panel extending at an angle with respect to a vertical line bisecting the front and :back of the shorts when said shorts are laid out flat, the said side edges of the front panels being connected to the side edges of the back panel at the sides of the garment to form right and left side seams which form said angle 0 with said line and wherein the angle 0 is between 9 and 10.

2. A pair of shorts as claimed in claim 1 wherein the shorts are formed of a fabric in which the bias of the material is approximately 45 to the direction of the individual yarns which comprise the fabric, and wherein the direction of bias of the materials on each side of each side seam forms an equal but opposite angle with the side seam as the bias on the opposite side of the same said,

side seam.

3. A method for making a pair of shorts comprising the steps of (a) marking on a length of fabric material a back panel having an axis parallel to one direction of the yarns of the fabric and having a pair of side edges and right and left front panels, each having a side edge and a fly edge, the latter edge also being parallel to the said one direction, and the side edges of the back panel forming the same angle with the said one direction as that formed by the said side edges of the right and left front panels, cutting the panels out of the length of fabric material and (1)) connecting the side edges of the right and left front panel to form right and left side seams, respectively, wherein the angle of bias of the fabric on each side of each side seam forms an equal but opposite angle with the side seam as the bias on the opposite side of the same said side seam, said one direction of the yarn being the longitudinal direction of the length of material, and wherein the said angle of the side edges is 9 to 10, and wherein the side seams are located at the rightmost and leftmost sides of the shorts.

4. A method for making a plurality of pairs of shorts of varying sizes, each pair of shorts including aback panel having a bisecting axis extending from the top to the bottom of the back panel and side seams forming an ange with the said bisecting axis, and right and left front panels, each said front panel having generally straight and parallel upper and lower edges and a fly edge substantially perpendicular to the upper and lower edges said back panel having side edges and each of said front panels further having a side edge, each of said side edges forming said angle 6 with respect to said bisecting axis and said fly edges, including the steps of marking on a length of material the patterns for the panels to form the said plurality of pairs of shorts so that the side edges of the back panel and the front panels form said angle 0 with the longitudinal axis of the length of material, and including cutting the material along the lines indicated, and attaching to the right and left side edges of each back panel the side edges of its corresponding right and left front panels respectively, and connecting the right and left front panels of each pair of shorts together to form a fly, and forming a crotch seam and an inseam.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the angle 0 is 8 to 12.

6. The method of claim wherein the angle 0 is 9 to 10.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein the step of marking the pattern on a length of material includes marking the pattern for twenty-four pairs of shorts so that the individual panels are arranged in the following relative positions wherein the width of the cloth is and the numerals designate the size for which a given panel is intended, and the letters R and L on the front panels designate right and left, respectively, and the letter B represents a back panel and wherein the angle 0 is 8 to 12;

(a) the length of material includes a first portion having two adjacent columns of panels and a second portion having three adjacent columns of panels,

(b) wherein in one column of the first portion the panels are arranged in the following order, respectively; 30L, 40L, 40R, 42L, 38R, 32R, 32L, 38L, 44L, 38L, 38R, 36R, 32R, 34L, 36L, 36R, 32L, 36L, 36R, 36L, 44R, 42R, 36R, 34R, 32B, 36L, and 34B, and wherein in the other column of the first portion the panels are arranged in the following order, respectively, 44B, 32B, 32B, 28B, 36B, 42B, 36B, 30B, 34B, 34B, 36B, 40B, 38B, 32B, 38B, 34B, 36B, 30B, 32B, 34B, 34B, 34R, 30B, 34R, and

(c) the first column of the second portion includes the following panels, respectively, 30R, 30L, 30R, 28R, 34L, 32R, 34L, the middle column of the second portion includes the following panels, respectively, 28L, 34R, 30L, 32L, 32L, 32R, 34R, and the third column of the second portion includes the following panels, respectively, 34L, 30R, 34L, 34L, 32L, 34R and 32R.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the angle 0 is 9 to 10.

9. The method ofclaim 7 wherein the back panels are single pieces extending between the side edges.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the step of forming the crotch seam includes connecting together the front panels below the fly, and the step of forming the inseam includes connecting the front panels to the bottom of the back panel.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,191,169 2/1940 Katz 2 224 3,016,900 l/l962 Title 2 224 XR 1,277,700 9/ 1918 Decker et a1 2 224 1,985,933 1/1935 Laskin 2 224 2,417,473 3/1947 Dorfman 2 224 2,549,374 4/ 1951 Friedman.

3,134,108 5/1964 Terry et al. 2 224 H. HAMPTON HUNTER, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 2-243 

